Law enforcement south of the border is badly outgunned. A murder in the Mexican state of Chihuahua last week horrified even hardened crime stoppers. Police Commander Martin Castro's head was severed and left in an ice cooler in front of the police station in the town of Praxedis with a calling card from the Sinaloa drug cartel.
According to Mexico's attorney general, 6,616 people died in drug-trafficking violence in Mexico last year. A high percentage of those killed were themselves criminals, but many law enforcement agents battling organized crime were also murdered. The carnage continues. For the first 22 days of this year the body count is 354. [...]
As Gen. McCaffrey notes, Mexico produces an estimated eight metric tons of heroin a year and 10,000 metric tons of marijuana. He also points out that "90% of all U.S. cocaine transits Mexico" and Mexico is "the dominant source of methamphetamine production for the U.S." The drug cartels earn more than $25 billion a year and "repatriate more than $10 billion a year in bulk cash into Mexico from the U.S."

Delaware County Daily Times -- Primos, Pennsylvania Illegal, legal immigration haunting U. S....Corporate America’s shortsighted policy of recruiting immigrants at the expense of American students and workers will only further antagonize society and produce an anti-business backlash. -- Perhaps Pat Buchanan is correct when he suggests that we should enact a temporary moratorium on further immigration in order to construct an immigration policy...

Carolyn Cook -- Family Security MattersSCHIP scheme is a Trojan HorseThis insurance program has turned from a safety net to a classic Trojan Horse - but instead of Greek soldiers, it holds a socialist agenda that, once established, might never be eradicated....

Los Angeles Daily NewsMayoral race counts down, but apathy may be a player...The best known, relatively speaking, among [Mexican Reconquista zealot Antonio] Villaraigosa challengers are attorney Walter Moore and City Hall gadfly David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg. Other active challengers include community activist David R. Hernandez, actor Phil Jennerjahn and attorney Bruce Darian, all of whom have been running earnest campaigns.

ABC News -- New YorkMissing 11-year-old girl may have run off with illegal Mexican alienPolice are searching for an 11-year-old Texas girl who they say took off with a 23-year-old man she'd been sneaking out with. -- Tyler Police Officer Don Martin told ABCNews.com that Iridian Julissa Rodriguez left a note in her backpack, saying "that she did not want to live there anymore, that she'd rather be dead, that she was going to Mexico." [More "family values"]

Associated Press sc Economic forecasters see more job cuts aheadIt's shaping up to be another lousy year for workers, with more companies expecting to cut payrolls in the months ahead. -- That's part of the latest outlook from forecasters in a survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics that depicts the worst business conditions in the U.S. since the report's inception in 1982..

Californians for Population StabilizationAsk your Representative to support the E-Verify amendments!The House Appropriations Committee has added two important E-Verify amendments to the Stimulus Bill. The first amendment, by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), would reauthorize the E-Verify program for a period of five years....

Enter Stage Right -- Sudbury, Ontario The successfully Confederate New World OrderNot too long ago I compared Barack Obama to the great but inevitably defeated military genius of the Confederate South, General Robert E. Lee. The issues of slavery and abortion being so much alike, I picked the Progressive superstar as a "light" that has shown even more radiantly than the other Progressive standout...

Rick Oltman -- CAPS Pondering PelosiSpeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made a statement on one of the Sunday talking heads shows that is interesting to say the least. As you can see from the transcript below, Speaker Pelosi is justifying spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars to expand family planning as part of the economic stimulus... [More from Rick Oltman]

Anderson (South Carolina) Independent Mail E-Verify system works, Pickens County officials saySome legal measures that took effect Jan. 1 in South Carolina place added restrictions on illegal workers, because employers now are required to use E-Verify or other federal work authorization programs. -- A state law now requires all public employers and public contractors employing more than 500 people...

Mike Cutler -- Family Security MattersIllegal aliens akin to burglars in the nightWill "change we can believe in" reflect the way our nation used to do business: aliens who might displace - or harm - American workers were kept out of the United States?....

Ron Ewart -- Canada Free Press -- TorontoThe coming civil warIf you are a hard-working, responsible, self-reliant and successful American, how do you like billions of your taxes paying for bank, business and ne'er-do-well homebuyer bailouts, homebuyers that were encouraged by government to buy homes they couldn't afford?

Associated Press Immigration raid spotlights rift of have-nots...For a long time, Howard workers were poor blacks and whites in this town of 18,000, where an estimated 30 percent of the population lives in poverty. -- But in the past few years, immigrants poured across the Mexican border, eagerly applying for work on the Howard line and not complaining about long hours or menial labor...

McDowell News Sheriff's Office teams with feds to deport illegalsThe McDowell County Sheriff's Office is onboard with a federal program that pinpoints illegal immigrants and earmarks them for deportation. -- The 287(g) Program, which takes its name from Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996, is designed to authorize state and local law enforcement officers to act as immigration agents...

Jerome R. Corsi, Ph. D. -- WorldNetDaily.com Glenn Spencer: 'Where's the fence?'The Department of Homeland Security has built fewer than 200 miles of fence along the U.S. border with Mexico, not the 526 miles claimed by DHS and the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, according to Glenn Spencer, founder of the watchdog group American Border Patrol... [See Spencer's response]

Times of India -- Gurgaon, Haryana Microsoft to axe 5,000, no job cuts in IndiaNew York -- Starting with 1,400 job cuts, software giant Microsoft will slash 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months. -- "Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, HR, marketing, sales, finance, legal, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today," the company said in a statement...

Amarillo Globe-News Patrolling the Panhandle: Immigration arrests downHe's made a life out of breaking in. He first gained entry to America at 15, stowing away on a cargo ship from his native Honduras to Florida. Since then, he's been in and out of the country several times. -- Kelvin Fabricio Lemus-Villatorro wears his crime as a badge of honor, grinning when he mentions his illegal trips into the U.S...

Agence France-PresseBritish PM sees 'new world order' after crisisLondon -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday the financial crisis must not be an excuse to retreat into protectionism and instead be viewed as the "difficult birth-pangs of a new global order." -- In a speech, he will urge countries to avoid "muddling through as pessimists" and "make the necessary adjustment to a better future and setting the new rules for this new global order..." [Related item]

Los Angeles TimesCalderon seeks to dispel talk of 'failing state'Stark assessments of the threat that drug crime poses to Mexico's stability have put the government of President Felipe Calderon on the defensive as he tries to forge a relationship with a new U.S. president. -- Rising violence, spurred in part by Calderon's 2-year-old offensive against drug traffickers...

Californians for Population StabilizationObama announces his support for amnestyPresident Obama has reiterated his support for an amnesty for illegal aliens. His White House website announces his intention to "bring people out of the shadows" and "support a system that allows [illegal aliens] who are in good standing...

Chicago Daily Herald Elgin council candidates weigh in on immigration enforcementElgin city leaders have been frustrated with the lack of action or direction provided by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. -- The six hopefuls seeking the lone 2-year city council seat - Al Fernandez, Emi Morales, Mike Robins, Brenda Rodgers, Charlene Sligting and Mike Warren - all favor having the full council meet with ICE officials...

Associated Press DHS directive aimed at Obama's illegal auntThe White House is promising to reconsider a new rule requiring high-level approval before federal immigration agents can arrest fugitives. The Bush administration quietly imposed the unusual directive days before the election of Barack Obama, whose aunt has been living in the United States illegally...

New America Media Jobless illegals move into cavesPlainfield, NJ -- Dozens of unemployed Central American immigrants who lost their jobs and can't afford to pay rent have moved into caves, reports El Diario/La Prensa. Immigrants have been living in the makeshift homes in Plainfield and North Plainfeld, N.J. for three months, and call their new residence the "Devil’s Cave."

WBTV -- Charlotte 6 likely illegals from Mexico allegedly gang-rape womanLaw enforcement tells WBTV that six suspected illegal immigrants from the Rock Hill area allegedly gang raped a woman on the North Carolina coast. -- Three suspects have been caught in and around Rock Hill; three are still on the loose and it's feared they've escaped to Mexico... [More "family values"]

El Paso TimesVirtual border surveillance program ineffective, cost millionsA virtual border surveillance program Gov. Rick Perry has committed millions of taxpayer dollars to fell far short of expectations during the first six months of operation. -- Border sheriffs, who Perry gave $2 million to line the Texas-Mexico border with hundreds of Web cameras, installed only about a dozen... [Note: At least one virtual border camera system works. Click here to see...]

Tulsa WorldPassenger dies in expressway accident, driver arrested...According to police, 18-year-old Joel Jaimes was driving westbound at about 10 p.m. Thursday with two passengers when he lost control of the vehicle. -- ...Jaimes and the other passenger ran from the scene, according to police. -- And... Jaimes also is being held for ICE, according to jail records.